WordPress or Webflow, which software to choose?

WordPress - a giant with huge support

We can say that it was created in the bygone days of the Internet - in 2003. At the time, it was just a blogging platform. Today - after many years of operation - it rules the market. It will work great as a system for creating a professional website, store or classic online portfolio.

On WordPress it works 43.1% of all websites in the world. This represents 63.1% of the market share among CMS systems alone.
w3techs.com

WordPress is inexpensive (why we think it is not 100% free we will describe in a separate paragraph below) and extremely simple to use, although let's be honest that for today its panel is archaic. The built-in CMS makes it so that after creating a site, you can independently add new content to it - without fear that you will spoil something. And on top of that, you get complete freedom in terms of editing templates, access to the source code, which means that your site will look exactly as you and your digital agency came up with it.

Is WordPress really free? Debunking the myth!

Despite the fact that Wordpress offers free access to its basic version, there are many other elements that can involve costs. First of all, a site on Wordpress is the need to purchase your own hosting, which is necessary to launch a website based on this platform. Hosting is a service that you have to pay for regularly to keep your website running smoothly and without downtime.

In addition, there are many paid themes, plugins and additional features that allow you to expand the possibilities of Wordpress. If you want to fully adapt your website to your needs, you will have to be willing to invest additional financial resources.

Some of the biggest advantages of WordPress include:

• great possibilities of integration with external systems: payments, delivery methods, CRM, lead generation and many, many others;
• availability of more than 50,000 plugins, allowing to improve the operation of the site;
• great tuning with SEO;
• wide design possibilities: from standard themes to projects created from scratch;
• customization for online stores: WordPress is also WooCommerce;
• intuitive CMS system (Gutenberg) that will handle literally anyone.

This is the most popular system for page design. WordPress compared to Webflow is a giant. Noteworthy is a huge community, a mass of tutorials and specialists in creating pages on WordPress. This ensures that when something breaks down, you will quickly find the person or company to fix it for you.

But this does not mean that WordPress in 100% of cases will be the best choice. On the contrary, get to know Webflow!

Webflow - first of all, the uniqueness of the site

Webflow is a distant cousin of WordPress. It was born much later, because only in 2013, but with a slightly different idea. It is based on free drag-and-drop design and is most recommended for people who want to own an out-of-the-box website.

There is plenty of room for design in Webflow. Pages are created more visually according to the idea “no code”. Such a process is faster, which allows designers to focus more on the sales aspects of the site, its User Experience and business goals. Despite this, the implementation of Webflow is always a rather complicated aspect and requires the work of a specialist - Webflow Developer. To put it bluntly, you need to have a lot of knowledge about web development to implement Webflow effectively and efficiently. Add to this stability and high security, and we have practically an ideal system.

WordPress has divided solutions into plugins, and Webflow He put everything into a whole. A system “all in one” containing all the necessary functions for the operation of the site.

In Webflow we are dealing with one big system that has all the add-ons built in. We do not install plugins in it and do not do updates, which makes the risk of error in it is negligible. maybe Webflow is not free - just like WordPress - but the subscription fee includes hosting and support, for which in the case of WordPress we also have to pay.

The advantages of Webflow include:

• no need to update, your site after creation will simply work;
• high stability of the system, regardless of the amount of additives;
• transparent software for SEO;
• built-in SSL certificate for each subpage you create;
• preview of the appearance of the page on each device;
• stable hosting on Amazon servers (up to 10 billion hits per month);
• flexibility: we will create both a website and a store in it;
• free plan, designed for testing and study;
• security and effective protection against hacking attacks.

Only 0.6% of all websites in the world use Webflow. This is not enough, but the effects that this system gives make it more and more popular. Just take a look at list of 2232 pages in Webflow in Poland, which have been designed in it to see what opportunities it offers.

When should you opt for WordPress?

In Polish conditions This system is best suited for owners of medium and large websites, where integrations with external systems (especially made in Poland) are necessary. With Webflow on the Polish market, we may have a problem finding external software that will be consistent with it - in WordPress such problems do not occur.

The plus is the ability to create a quick and simple site on a ready-made theme by people with low programming skills, but even greater implementation of the author's idea of a professional interactive agency, which will allow to build a professional image on the Internet. That is why many agencies and software houses choose Wordpress as the basic CMS system for building websites.

And although WordPress is free, we still have to incur additional costs related to:

• good quality hosting (usually in the form of an annual fee);
• maintenance of the website (for updates and possible technical problems);
• image costs, when a site falls victim to a hacker attack.

It is also worth paying attention to some inconveniences associated with setting up a site on WordPress. These include:

• Risk of attack: open source is an ideal loot for hackers, so regular analysis of the site is necessary - and this costs money;
• problems with the operation of the site: plugins on WordPress require updating, and these do not always work as needed, problems with the site can also arise if two (or more) plugins do not work correctly with each other;
• illegible code: not always, but a large number of plugins increases this risk, which in turn translates into problems with SEO, increases the bounce rate and reduces the loading speed of the page;
• the need for constant cooperation with a WordPress specialist: to watch over the smooth operation of the site, its security and updates to the system and plugins.

When should you opt for Webflow?

The unusual comes to the fore stability and security Webflow. No need to update, fixing code or making corrections to plugins. A website built on Webflow just works. And it will work. Even Webflow add-ons work at 100%. The problem is only with their quantity. In Poland, few companies creating advanced software used on the Internet support Webflow, so we will not always find support with CRM or lead generation systems.

Or something else? First of all, clean code. This is something that will be difficult to get on WordPress without the support of a professional developer, which costs money. The plugins in this system complicate things by making a mess in the code, and their perpetual updates introduce a great danger in the aspect of the performance of the web page. On Webflow, you can forget about it. The code generated during the Webfow deployment is clean as a tear. The system makes sure that it is always of high quality, thus friendly to Google robots. Failure to update protects against uncontrollable drops in the performance of your code and your entire website.

Webflow will therefore work best for companies that need a website of any size without complicated and proprietary integrations. For those who want to make a site and go about business, and not the eternal updating of the system and plugins. The costs of its implementation and support may then be lower than the costs associated with the WordPress site.

However, it is worth noting 3 disadvantages of Webflow:

• problematic individual functionality: the lower popularity of Webflow and its closed architecture makes the implementation of integrations that are not available in the system expensive and complicated and requires additional code in JavaScript;
• a small number of external, dedicated Webflow integrations in the Polish market,
• monthly subscription, which not everyone will want to decide on.

Our offer: Web development in Webflow

WordPress or Webflow - summary

There are no perfect systems. WordPress and Webflow have different capabilities - and their choice depends on the purpose of our site. With “regular”, smaller sites, it is worth leaning towards Webflow. We bear the costs of creating the site and the subscription, but we do not have to worry about anything else. However, if we want to make a complex online store or website with integration or many integrations with Polish external systems - Wordpress may turn out to be better.

Sometimes it is worth checking the comparisons and descriptions that appear on independent technology portals. An example is G2.com. G2.com works on the principle of collecting reviews from users who use various tools and software. This site allows Internet users to generate benchmarks and share their experiences to help others make more informed purchasing decisions.

If you don't know which solution is best for you, contact us. We will analyze your goals and choose the system that works better for your website.